Archie broke the seal and dumped the beads out in his hand. He rubbed the “pearls” between his fingers, then lifted it so that the wooden Krewe badge and the stone were eye level. “Did Henri use a loupe on this?”
Now it was Zach’s turn to hesitate. “He says he hadn’t yet. Said even if that wasn’t a gemstone, the age of the beads made the glass valuable.”
“Did you believe him?”
Laura half frowned. Could what she thought was glass be a gemstone? Was the value in the age, in its composition, or the fact that it had resurfaced? Some or all of the above?
“Are they the same as the ones that went missing?” Zach was nothing if not persistent.
Archie’s rueful gaze met hers. “I’m not sure. They look the same but…”
“They could be a copy?” Laura offered this, with a sideways glance at her dad.
